Berlin, 3. September 2013 –You are sitting in your living-room and are watching a Formula-1 race. The racing action is as usual being shown from various camera perspectives. Simultaneously you can follow the race live from the cockpit and from the perspective of your favorite driver. For this purpose, the stream from the onboard camera of the racing car is displayed on the smartphone.

This is enabled through the multi-screen platform Famium of Fraunhofer FOKUS, which combines screens and functions of individual devices. Thereby the strengths of each device can be combined. Be it television set, mobile device or PC – in the future the viewer controls the contents of films and entertainment by himself. The viewer receives information on additional media and actively takes part in the program. At the joint-stand of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft in the theme area “Multiscreen Entertainment” IFA visitors can try out the application scenarios of the Famium platform and on the hand of five additional demonstrators get an impression of new technologies for interactive and cross-device entertainment.

Browser based DRM solution: Famium

Famium enables cross-platform multiscreen- and rich media applications, thereby enabling scenarios such as Live-TV in the browser without plugins, dynamic advertising and synchronous playback of video on multiple screens. The video content is integrated in the web sphere through adaptive streaming-technologies such as MPEG DASH (Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP). MPEG DASH ensures an efficient, smooth replay of videos in the best possible quality via internet.

Fraunhofer FOKUS apart from presenting the implementation of a browser-based DASH client also shows a DRM (Digital Rights Management) solution on the basis of the ISO Base Media File Format (ISO BMFF). DRM solutions allow a differentiated administration of intellectual property rights of digital content. Thereby digital content can be used beyond a mere standard fee. Additionally the individual licensing is made possible based on frequency, duration of the utilization. Through a uniform encryption (common encryption) Famium connects various DRM solutions, which makes the distribution and usage of copyrighted content easier.

Cross-device services: webinos

Together with 30 international project-partners such as the Deutsche Telekom, Samsung or Sony, researchers at Fraunhofer FOKUS work in the project »webinos« on an open source platform that enables the development of cross-platform and cross-domain apps. The apps should be able to communicate securely within and between predefined groups of devices. The exhibit webinos TV demonstrates how already today on the basis of the webinos-technology one can access media, data and functionality through various networked devices.